North Korean Leader Replaces 8 In Cabinet

Technocrats' Aim Will Be To Fix Economy

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has shuffled his Cabinet, replacing veteran, septuagenarian ministers with younger technocrats in what South Korean intelligence officials are calling a prelude to long-overdue economic reforms.

The changes were announced last Wednesday during a closed meeting of the Supreme People's Assembly, North Korea's rubber-stamp legislature.

Details about the new ministers have been seeping out from the secretive communist state.

"They are less ideological and more oriented toward improving the economy," said a high-ranking South Korean official who requested anonymity. "We are seeing a rapid rise of the technocrats. These are pragmatic people."

Political changes in North Korea normally take place at a glacial pace, and by that standard, this overhaul is emerging as a dramatic event. The last time Kim replaced a significant number of ministers was in 1998.

There are eight new ministers in the 31-member Cabinet, including a new prime minister, Pak Pong Ju, 64, a former chemical industries minister. Some of the other ministers are in their 40s and 50s.

In a speech to North Korea's assembly last week, Pak pledged that the new government would "establish on a large scale scientific and economic strategies and operations which meet the demand of the new century."

There has been no indication that the new Cabinet will depart from Kim's long-stated policy of according the military top priority or from the pursuit of nuclear weapons. South Korean newspapers reported Monday that the North might display a new multistage missile that is thought to have a range of 1,800 miles during military celebrations this week marking the 55th anniversary of the country's founding.